The UW Bioengineering Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee
The UW Bioengineering JEDI committee is coordinating with other committees to develop mechanisms to increase our department’s level of expertise on anti-racism and inclusive teaching and mentoring, to provide similar expertise to our trainees through curricular changes and workshops, to redesign our hiring, admissions, retention, and support processes to remove structural as well as individual biases, and to engage in transparent communication with the Bioengineering community that includes opportunities for feedback.
2024-2025 Objectives/Projects:
- Educate ourselves on civil rights laws and DEI skills.
This involves finding and acquiring readings for the JEDI committee. - Rushmer Lecture
Find a speaker to give the Rushmer lecture and meet with department stakeholders to provide insights for our JEDI initiatives. - JEDI Communications
Review updated land acknowledgment, promote JEDI events and resources to the BioE community, and otherwise provide JEDI-related communications, including reviewing and updating the JEDI website. - Representation and DiversiTEA
This program, open to all, seeks to identify and dismantle (address) barriers to representation within BioE. Our major focus is to organize quarterly DiversiTEA Chats, which are conversations with snacks and Boba Tea that aim to strengthen the participants’ sense of belonging and to increase the visibility and support for members who are underrepresented in BioE. - Outreach
Increase school visits in winter and spring quarters, with an emphasis on increasing representation of underrepresented students in the recruitment pools by demonstrating BioE as a possible career and education pathway that those that might not be aware of or see themselves in these opportunities. Focus on rebuilding contacts and find new partners for outreach efforts. - Faculty Diversity
Continue working to improve our faculty and ensure support of all faculty through transition to the next career stages. Recruit a pool of faculty applicants who bring diversity, lenses and viewpionts to UW BioE, and consider best practices for hiring. Take tangible steps towards addressing what may prevent junior faculty from achieving their potential, possibly through faculty mentoring.
JEDI Full Committee Published Meeting Minutes – Please note that the document will be updated with upcoming meetings minutes during the academic year.